My question is Why?

We all remember last year on CNBC when Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt said:

“If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.”

If the internet is about being open and transparent as they want us to believe then why is there a need for any such privacy?

As I continued to read the blog post one particular phrase caught my attention:

Searching over SSL doesn’t reduce the data sent to Google — it only hides that data from third parties who seek it.

Read that again…

it only hides that data from third parties who seek it.

Google still knows what you are searching. I think the thing that is transparent here is that Google is an advertising company who just happens to be in the search engine game.  There are plenty of third party applications that rely heavily on data from Google. The ones that I see being adversely affected by this new encrypted search are the small advertising companies and software companies that are not going to be able to pay for that kind of information from Google. Particularly the firms that focus on SEO and PPC.

I’m sure that there are many other area of your life that Google would like to “control” as they place order to the world via the internet. Is this just another way to gain control of our personal information?

Is this just another tactic to regain control over our private information? Tell me what you think. Leave a comment below

Everyone remembers the commercial Google aired on the Superbowl. Well to continue the success of that campaign Google released a fun new tool called Search Story Tool.  Not only is this a great piece of marketing but also teaches us a few things along the way.

Let’s break it down to see why this is such a great viral marketing campaign.

They kept the process simple… 3 steps is all

You write a little story add some music and the upload it after you check it out. Keeping the process clearly defined and easy to follow is a prerequisite for any viral marketing campaign. The harder it is the less likely it will take off.

Give Creativity to the end user

Everyone likes to tell their friends about something they made or created even if they had a little help. If you give a way for your end user to do a little bit of customization it will pay  dividends in the long run. Get creative and let your end user show their stuff.

Make it easy to share

If a campaign is going to go viral it needs a way to easily spread. Leveraging the end user’s social media connection is the fastest and easiest way to do just that. You don’t have to go crazy and give them every option under the sun but the top 2-3 will do just fine.

On a side note….

If Google didn’t test using Google Buzz as one of the viral tools…shame on them

Also don’t over look the ease of sending a link or embedding the media on a blog or website. It’s a great way to get your end user to spread the word even more. Nothing says Viral like being linked on millions of blogs and websites.

So to recap…

When creating a viral marketing campaign remember to:

1. Keep the Process Simple
2. Give Creativity to the End User
3. Make It Easy to Share

Don’t be shy let my know what you think and make a comment below

Here’s something that will make you think

thanks to Ed Dale for pointing me to this video

*** Update 4/23/2010 ***

I noticed that the video above had quitely been removed from YouTube no doubt not by the user as the screen shot above indicates. I found the video elsewhere and have included it below.

But first I wanted to mention an update on my last post about Google Buzz. There were a lot of concerns about some of the privacy settings and how your information was being used. Google has made various updates and they mention the changes on their blog. Enough said.

A few days ago on the official Google blog they made a post about how webmasters and web site owners could specify your canonical. One of the biggest concerns for anyone that does SEO is that of duplicate content on their website. Now that Google, Yahoo and MSN (Bing) are going to start supporting the rel=”canonical” tag in the header it makes it easy for Google and the others to slap your website around if you have duplicate content.

For those that aren’t sure what I am referring to here is an example:

• http://micaljohnson.com
• http://www.micaljohnson.com
• http://micaljohnson.com/index.htm

All this links point to the same page and would cause a duplicate content penalty to be served. This is a very simple example. I’ll share more in a moment.

Those of us that use WordPress blogs should be familiar with this because of the way the link structure of the blog works we often times end up with duplicate content. Thankfully the genius wordpress plugin creator Joost de Valk at Yoast.com made a great wordpress plugin to canonical your blog and help eliminate that problem.

Here are a few places to check out to get up to speed on this:

• Yoast.com: Canonical URL links
• Google Blog: About rel=”canonical”

Here is also a video of Google’s Matt Cutts explaining it a little better

After playing around with it for a bit I checked out what some of my favorite people were saying about it. Here is a short list of the best reviews and comments.

• Google Buzz: The Missing Features by ReadWriteWeb
• Google Buzz is not a Facebook killer by Jason Falls
• How to do everything in Google Buzz (including turning it off). http://bit.ly/bfQTQH by @sspenguin
• WARNING: Google Buzz Has A Huge Privacy Flaw by @alleyinsider

If you have any others to add just leave them in the comments below.

I raced over to the Google Reader blog to check it out for myself. Before the change if you wanted to add a subscription to your Google Reader account it required that the page had an RSS feed, but now thanks to this cool update that is no longer the case.

I’ve been using this feature for a number of years to keep track of cool sites so I don’t have to keep checking my favorites all the time. It has gotten to the point that I rarely even check my bookmarks…and there is a TON of them.

With the sites I check on a regular basis I have them come to my reader account then if the content is good I’ll go visit the site and finish reading. It saves me lots of time of endlessly going from one site to another. Now they don’t even need to have a RSS feed for me to add them.

Now it’s time for me to run out and check out all my favorites and see what I can add to my list.

Today is a GREAT day! Thanks Google

[img credit: filiph]

The internet changes at the speed of thought and as users we constantly demand more new content and ways to interact with each other. But have you ever wondered what the future will hold for us online? The was the topic of conversation for Eric Schmidt recently in Orlando as he discussed the future of the web and Google.

Here’s a hint on a couple of things he talked about:

• The greatest challenge is how to rank “real time” content
• The web will be dominated but Chinese content. (new ICANN ruling becomes very important)

Photo credit: Gisela Giardino

What do you think? 

Your opinon counts: leave a comment below

Just imagine all the endless hours driving around that you will save by just taking a quick look at what is the best price online. Maybe you can even negotiate with the store manager and get a better price just by showing him what available online.

Wow! It’s the ultimate social proof for your shopping experience.

And…

Now you don’t even have to take something back because you find out it was a piece of junk when you got home. Now you will know as soon as you do the search while you are at the store.

Enjoy you new online shopping experience right from your phone.

Rob Stacey, an engineer on the Google mobile team, demonstrates how to use Google Product Search for mobile as he goes on a shopping adventure at Google. Product Search for mobile let’s you see online prices, ratings, and reviews right on your phone. Currently, it’s available for iPhone and Android devices in the US and UK.

Did you like the video? Share your thoughts below and don’t forget to subscribe to get all the updates as they happen.